


of tulips and roses

by Signel_chan



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: F/F, Wedding Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23950054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: Weddings are meant to be a bride's special day, but sometimes sacrifices must be made to accommodate the other party's wishes. Sacrifices don't always end up being bad things, though.
Relationships: Akamatsu Kaede/Harukawa Maki
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34
Collections: April 2020 Server Gift Exchange





	of tulips and roses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [forest_does_a_thing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/forest_does_a_thing/gifts).



Kaede’s dream wedding had always been awash with pastels, bright flowers lining every possible walkway, with a hint of chill in the springtime air, a professional pianist of some sort doing the honors of playing the processional. She’d always envisioned herself standing at the altar with a flowing gown, pinching at her waist before billowing out behind her for several meters, the top adorned with jewel flowers that reflected the natural lighting of the venue. Her face, immaculately decorated with makeup done by a professional stylist, would be obscured by a long veil until her bride on the other side uncovered it, and then she’d see how devoted to herself (and to her) she really was. This was a dream she’d been piecing together since her childhood, a dream that once had been completely full of intricate details she’d long forgotten, but the key tenets of the day had always remained the same.

She knew that she couldn’t have all of her dreams come true, though, and in planning her grand wedding she had to make sacrifices to make sure that her partner would find enjoyment in the day as well, and she made those cuts to her dreams with a smile on her face. “It’s not just _my_ day, after all,” she told the wedding planner, who jotted down notes about what changes were being made. “I can’t be selfish, not if I want this wedding to go flawlessly. You’ll let her know that, right?” The planner nodded, and Kaede went right on with laying out what she wanted, and what she was willing to change for the sake of a successful event.

Maki’s dream wedding took place in the fall, when the leaves were crisp just like the air around them, the colors vibrant and reminiscent of the ones she wanted for the ceremony. In lieu of flowers she’d have bunches of leaves, bound together by red and black ribbons, a more gothic-like feel to the atmosphere than most weddings traditional had. She couldn’t see herself standing there in a dress, even though she’d tried many on before deciding that she wanted to wear something a bit more casual for the affair, opting for a pantsuit with a pocket perfect for wearing a flower of her bride’s choosing in it. She’d keep her long hair pulled back into an ornate plait, more of those flowers woven into it, and she would do her makeup like she did every day, perhaps with a bit more attention given to making her eyes pop with waterproof eyeliner and mascara. Her dream hadn’t been something she’d begun to solidify until she was nearly an adult, always having thought she’d never survive to marriage or never find someone willing to love a former orphan such as herself, but once she’d fallen in love against the odds she’d begun to come to terms with what her heart desired most.

She knew right away that she wasn’t going to be getting most of her wishes when it came to her big day, though, because of how non-traditional her desires were. “I’ll give up most of it, if it means she’s happy,” she conceded after talking the plans through with the wedding planner. “As long as I can get up there wearing what I want, I guess I can’t be too picky about what else happens around me.” The planner scribbled the concession down and began asking detailed questions about what were good things to give up, and Maki was willing to throw everything down that she couldn’t live without, and the things that she wouldn’t lose sleep over if they didn’t happen.

The wedding took place in the summer, under a shining blue sky that illuminated the carefully-selected dark roses and bright tulips that finished every row of chairs. The crowd was large—something that one bride had been wary of, but she’d known that it wasn’t something that could be helped—and they’d made sure to sit across both sides of the aisle, even though they were mostly there for one person in particular. There were old friends, people who they hadn’t properly seen in years, and acquaintances that had been met once upon a time, all gathered to share in the love and tenderness that the couple was going to be presenting to them. As the seats filled up, the music began to play and the ceremony got right to a quick, prompt start, the abbreviated wedding party approaching the front with everyone’s eyes on them.

Traditionally it was that the bride came last, but in a wedding with two brides they’d decided to choose who went first between them with a friendly game of rock-paper-scissors, and as the loser of the duel it was Kaede in her long, flowing dress that came first, holding onto a bouquet of the tulips she’d fought for so valiantly as well as the dark roses as she went down the aisle with her father on her arm. The crowd was stunned into silence as they made their slow approach, and when she got up to the altar she stood much like a statue, her veil making it hard for her to see much other than what she intentionally focused on.

The center of her attention was the other woman now standing at the other end of the aisle, who had the grandfather of one of her closest friends doing the honors of walking her down. It did sting slightly in Maki’s heart that she didn’t have her own family there for her, but she’d managed to make what she had work out in the end. She felt lucky that Kaito’s grandfather was so understanding as to jump into a father role for her when she needed it most, not even questioning what it was he was doing it for (even though she was sure he was a bit disappointed it wasn’t for her wedding to his grandson, but her relationship with Kaito wasn’t in that way). Every step she took, she could feel the eyes of all of Kaede’s invitees boring holes into her, into the way she was dressed in her pantsuit with roses and tulips knotted into her hair, and she wanted to lash out at them for being judgmental.

But they weren’t being judgmental, they were admiring how lovely she looked in what she’d wanted for herself, and how she was going to make a perfect wife for the woman they all cared about deeply. When she made it up to her place at the altar, she looked at Kaede with a breathless smile, even though she couldn’t see beyond the veil, and for a single moment, everything in their world stood still, and it was just the two of them up there together, having made sacrifices to get to where they were but still enjoying the day for what it was.

Then reality struck and they were in the midst of the proper ceremony, the exchanging of vows and rings and eventually kisses, to the cheering applause of everyone who’d gathered there for them. There was still so much to do, so many gifts to receive and people to thank, speeches to hear and toasts to be given, but those weren’t things they’d felt differently about, things that had to be sacrificed to come together in the end. The wedding itself, that was what they’d had to fight for their pieces of, but the rest of their outpouring of love? That was more in line with what they did on a normal day.

And from there, the question became not what they needed to give up to make the other happy, but rather what they were going to take to show their relationship on the daily. It wasn’t much of a question, those who knew the ladies already knew the answer to it before some well-meaning church woman who’d hired Kaede as a pianist once upon a time had asked it. Kaede put on a smile as she answered, still looking so radiant in her wedding dress she’d been so proud to wear. “Well, Maki’s really never had a family, and her last name doesn’t mean much to her, so…”

“It didn’t make sense for someone famous to have to give up her identity, and it didn’t make sense for me to keep one that I didn’t agree with,” Maki added, fidgeting with the sleeves on her suit jacket, regretting choosing to wear something so stifling in the summer heat, even if it looked lovely on her. “So from here on, everyone can formally address me as Maki Akamatsu, and if you choose not to…well, you might be choosing death.”

The crowd around them laughed and Kaede wrapped her arms around her wife, holding her tightly in an embrace that ended in them kissing a few times. “I still get butterflies when I hear you say it,” she admitted, whispering the words into Maki’s ear. “And I’ll get to hear you saying it for the rest of time!” It may not have been the dream wedding for either of them, but it certainly led into them both getting to lead their dream lives together, and that alone was worth the sacrifice.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry this is so short, Forest, but I felt that trying to shove more into it would make it lose the poignancy I felt it had! I did intend on making a second piece of some sort, but I got wrapped up in other things D:


End file.
